


Uchiha Sakura: Seraphim

by ShineWriter



Series: Uchiha Sakura [1]
Category: Naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2020-07-08 21:31:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19876402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShineWriter/pseuds/ShineWriter
Summary: Kakashi really didn’t know what to think when one of his new students acted similar to his old teammate, who passed away years ago.Sakura wasn’t sure what to think when she passed by a gray-haired ninja one day and a voice she knew well whispered in her head, “I know him.”Obito was terrified when, years ago, he woke from death to find two parents cooing at their toddling child, and he was looking through the child’s eyes.





	1. Red, Orange, Pink

A blond head bounced up and down. 

“I’m so excited! I can’t wait to meet our teacher and start training and-”

_He’s so excitable._

“-and _finally_ become a real ninja!”

He popped in front of a girl’s face. 

“Yanno!?” 

“Yeah,” the girl behind him sighed, smiling. “I know.” 

Slouching, a dark-haired kid lead the eclectic children. He looked back at them, then away. 

The three twelve-year-olds arrived in the grassy zone, about twenty meters across and farther toward the back of the tree line. Their teacher was nowhere to be seen. 

The blond hummed, pivoting his gaze and squinting. 

With a high tone, he blurted to the quiet air, “Where’s our teacher? Isn’t he supposed to be here yet?”

“I’m right here-”

“Gah!” 

Their teacher, a twenty-something man who still looked childish in the face, had gray hair and a sneakily jocose temperament. He looked solemn, wearing a black cloth mask over his mouth and nose, but his eyes were bright. Currently, he looked like he was laughing. His mouth didn’t move, however. 

The startled blond stuttered. “Well-well weren’t you supposed to be here earlier? Or before us?” 

The girl sighed and looked to the treeline on her right. The dark-haired boy was trying not to laugh behind the blond. He was failing. 

“-and weren’t you supposed to dress nice like _come on-_ ” 

He cut off with a choked noise as the man clapped a hand onto the boy’s shoulder. 

“Oh-kay that’s enough now. Ready to start training?”

“Yeah!-”

“Well too bad.”

The surprise was palpable. The boy behind him stopped snickering. The girl still wasn’t paying attention. 

“Wuh-what?”

“You have to do a _test_ to _see_ if I’ll _teach_ you. And if you _fail,_ you’re _not my student._ Does that make _sense_?” The man talked as if the blond was a toddler. 

_“Yes!”_ the incensed child hissed. The dark-haired boy came to his shoulder and stood in solidarity, squinting at the teacher - or possible teacher, as it was. Teachers were commonly addressed as sensei, as with doctors, but the man didn’t introduce himself as a sensei, so it made a slight bit of sense. 

The man looked to the girl, standing behind the group, still staring at the trees. One hand was beside her leg in a tense position, open-palmed. 

“Well? Sakura-” 

_Thunk._

Birds rancored and fled the trees as the projectile thumped wood. 

The man was surprised. She threw a throwing knife. Every person there was trained in how and had them, commonly called kunai. 

Why did she throw a kunai in the tree? 

“Sakura?”

Never mind that the treeline she threw into was at least ten meters away, maybe eight, and she hit her mark. 

“Hello?” 

“Sensei, before we start the preliminary exercise, could you survey the trees and make sure they’re clear. No unwanted guests crashing our party, kudasai?” 

Her voice sounded bell-like and clear, but oddly bland considering the intensity she stared, and the rigor in which she stood, having not moved positions since she returned her hand to where it stiffly hovered, over her kunai pouch. 

He understood. 

The boys shifted, unnerved, as the teacher spoke. 

“Okay, I’ll do a quick looksie-round and then I’ll be back. Sakura, you’ll watch them?”

“Mm-hm,” she nodded curtly, not otherwise moving. 

Their sensei vanished in a swirl of leaves. The boys were mystified, exchanged looks, and went to stand guard by the girl, Sakura, while they waited, just in case. Sakura’s personality wasn’t usually so curt, ending her sentences with please - kudasai - unless something was very wrong. Which it was. 

_ <Can you still sense him? I don’t see him…> _

_/Yeah, I think Kakashi’s confronting him. Atta boy! /_

_In her head, the girl sighed at his choice of language._

_ <You’ve gotta be kidding me…> _

_The boy she was talking to started to reply, but Kakashi appeared once again - the girl’s teacher._

“Okay, we should be clear to start! Please, let me know if you see something during the test, and we’ll reschedule while I work it out.” 

“What’s going on?”

“Oh, it’s just a scheduling conflict that _should_ be resolved.” 

_Liar._ There was no offense in the thought, only an observance of a fact. 

“Okay, time to go!” their sensei clapped his hands. The three children walked into the center of the clearing. 

“Your goal is to take these two bells from me.” He held them up and reattached them to his hip. 

“Whoever gets these bells passes. Now, I only take the best students, unlike other teachers. And I don’t do excuses. Serious things aside like medical or mental, is there any reason you three don’t feel ready to take this test today?”

They glanced at each other. Other than Sakura…

She met the blond one, Naruto’s, gaze, and nodded, then the dark-haired one, Sasuke’s. 

_Time to do this._

_/Hell yeah./_

_ <Any more tips on him?> _

_/Left side, favors it, don’t attack it without meaning to because he’s quicker to defend it. A fist under the ribs on the left should slip through easiest, but attack from under his arm and flee straight, don’t turn or dodge his attack, just run. Have a jutsu counter ready like fire or air for deflecting projectiles and won’t weigh on your speed. Go!/_

She thought to herself, _That’s it for now, then._

“Are you ready?” Kakashi-sensei was looking at her. She nodded, clapping hands with the boys before they prepared. 

“Three, two, one, go!” 

~*~

“Welcome home, Sakura-chan!” 

As the boy’s view focused, he saw two tired but smiling faces beaming down on him. The woman on the right was the speaker, seemingly young, with bright blonde hair, pale, freckled cheeks, and energetic green eyes. To her right and the boy’s left was a man appearing near her age, with hair styled in five points like a cherry blossom, and a similar hue. His tan, worn skin crinkled around his eyes. They both seemed to be looking down on him, but he _knew_ he couldn’t be that short. 

As he considered who they could be talking to, memorizing as many details as he could, the woman spoke, voice full of an alluring sunshine, and held her arms out for an embrace. 

“My precious baby girl! Come here!”

~*~

Kakashi almost swore he saw Sakura’s eyes flash red as she quirked a wry grin before the three kids vanished. 

~*~

Her voice was magnetic, and without meaning to, he found himself moving closer. He startled. He wasn’t moving closer. 

He tried to close his eyes and focus on his body. 

A moment after he felt his limbs, a tickling laugh resounded in his chest, ringing in his ears. He felt pudgy legs. He focused, and his mind gave him the image of a wobbly toddler. _What!?_ _What…_

He tried to breathe, and felt the sense of breathing, but his body wasn’t breathing in time with him. 

~*~

Sakura was hiding in the trees, and Naruto waved to her. She waved back discreetly, unlike his flung-out arm, and he took note and moved less. 

_She saw me! Yes!_

There was still something amazing about having a team, having friends. 

Sasuke was near him, on his left, and Naruto waved to Sasuke with two fingers. He signaled back. 

For Naruto, this was the first challenge to overcome for his dreams. 

_There’s no way we’re going to lose this._

_~*~_

Sakura was hiding, but she knew Kakashi’s nose could smell her. She was at his 5, and the wind was blowing her smell right at him. He kept on reading his orange book, and she could feel Obito’s feathers ruffling at his hypocrisy, mumbling in frustration about reminding Kakashi how much Rin hated those things. 

Sakura watched for an opening. 

She made no sound and didn’t solidify her thought to attack. Sensing someone’s intent was something every jonin, a high-ranking ninja, would know, so the only way to use surprise was be out of range, or make sure it was unexpected. 

She just jumped. 

She lunged toward his book, and as his arm came up to block her, she sprung off it and whipped her foot around to kick his face. He moved back, his foot stepping into a rope loop, cut it with a thrown kunai, and turned as she leapt up, grabbed a rope she tied to a kunai, and disappeared into the trees. 

She crouched and watched him “looking around” for her. He knew exactly where she was, and she waited until he appeared _right_ behind her, and-

She vanished, and this time he wasn’t sure where she went. He was looking around in a quietly startled manner, the eye not covered by his tilted headband wide. Sakura reveled for a moment. 

_/Wait, he sees you-/_

“Aaah!” He’s behind her, he’s reaching for her shoulder, can’t turn fast enou-

_Desolate land, crying, reaching out - Rin I wasn’t fast enough, tears, a bloody eye -_

Sakura reached out, grabbed his wrist, and twisted it, and turned to flee. She saw Kakashi’s eye widen as he started speaking. 

“Sakura, what-” 

She saw the moment he saw her eye, and she cursed. 

_Stupid, stupid, stupid-_

She fled. 

He was still standing there, hand still reaching, 

like it

was

on

Kanabi 

bridge. 

~*~

He tried to focus and not have a panic attack. He listed the first few things he could think of that defined him as him in his head. _I’m Obito Uchiha, thirteen, chunin, I love Jumbo and helping my grandma, I’m_ thirteen _, why is this happening-_

_-I died at Kanabi Bridge._

_Oh._

Now he remembered. 

Falling rocks and desperate cries, the tears of his best friends as one pulled the other away to save her life. 

_Oh._

He tried to overcome his melancholy by whining at himself. 

_But that doesn’t explain why I’m suddenly a kid!_

He thought about how his legs were moving on their own. 

He looked at the two people, the two parents, who were cooing at their child. 

Yes, he was dead. 

And he was in the body of a child who didn’t know he was here. 

~*~

Kakashi saw it. 

He tried to wrap his head around it. This particular ensnaring technique he used, one of many genjutsu, was supposed to show a person one of their fears, just enough to stop them for a moment. It was a training technique for genin. It wasn’t supposed to be… 

It wasn’t supposed to… show something so traumatic, show one of _his own_ memories… 

…

Maybe it wasn’t his alone anymore. He about had a heart attack when he first met the girl in the month of the turtle, what felt like years ago, a short girl with baby pink hair standing in the graveyard where his teammate’s name was etched with no body to his grave, when she started talking like Obito possessed her. 

But then… he _just_ saw, she had a sharingan, just like he did. Just like Kakashi did, too. 

Maybe she was telling the truth that day about what Obito wanted. 

… Was she his reincarnation? They- 

_Wait…_

He remembers now. He thought he dreamed it, but… that still leaves more questions and _god_ , _what_ is he going to _do_. He needs to tell Hokage, the village leader, and- 

_God_ , he has genin to test. _I need to stop thinking about this._ He was still standing in the same location; she might tell the boys where he is. _Those little shits would totally try to catch me off guard while I’m thinking._

He leapt into the trees. 

~*~ 

Sakura was heaving. 

_ <Shit shit shit. He saw me.> _

_/Yeah he did./_

Obito didn’t sound sure if it was a good thing or not. 

Sakura took a few deep breaths and tried not to think for a moment. Obito didn’t sense Kakashi in range, so. Safe for now. 

_Where are the boys?_

She tried to feel for them. Naruto was at her 12, felt intensely worried, and Sasuke was maybe two meters behind him at her 1. He was _mad_ , geez. Wonder why. 

_/Maybe they heard your beat-down in the forest. Wouldn’t surprise me./_

Kakashi was off by her 2:30, and she had half a mind to forfeit and leave so she wouldn’t see the look on his face again. 

_ <How, though? Neither of them could hear from that far-> _

_/Naruto can./_

She could never be serious about forfeiting, but there. 

_ <Oh. Duh.> _

_ <What can I do now?> _

_/Hmm.../_

_ <To get the drop on him…> _

They looked at each other mentally. 

_/Still up for Plan B?/_

Sakura took note of Naruto and Sasuke’s positions, preparing. 

_ < … Yeah, I guess.> _

Ugh. She was gonna hate this. 

She prepared to lead Kakashi away from them, then regroup and enact Plan B. 

That was all she had planned. 

She didn’t plan most of what happened next. 

~*~

Kakashi was watching for her this time. Not idly, but as a ninja. 

Now he knew she had the sharingan. She might already know the purpose of this test, but otherwise, he knew she had already conferred with her teammates and tried to put together a plan. To Kakashi, a group offensive would make more sense, but maybe there was a reason they chose not to attack together - incompatible abilities or skillsets, - 

_Stop._

It was too quiet. Everything was too quiet. He didn’t hear any birds at all or rustling of leaves, and he looked - he could see them move. 

The sharingan. 

Genjutsu. 

He tried to form his hands into the break position to stop the genjutsu, but Sakura came flying from behind and he didn’t have time. 

He turned and dodged three of her punches, up - side - down, then tensed as she started signing her hands into jutsu seals and backed up. 

He should be able to see what seals from this distance and know what attack she was preparing, but he couldn’t. He dodged to the left as she kept signing. 

Either the genjustu was blocking him from identifying the seals or seeing them clearly. Always the annoying thing when reality itself is working against you. 

It didn’t mean she wasn’t real and going to attack, but nothing about reality could be trusted. He had instincts and training for this reason. 

… 

_Where the hell did she go?_

She attacked from behind. 

_Okay, maybe she isn’t real… either way, I can’t risk using an attack that could fatally injure her or any of them, so…_

_...shit._

_I can’t believe she hasn’t given me time to break out. She’s a genin. If I was on a battlefield, I’d be dead._

She swung again, and he grabbed her wrist, lifting her up for a moment to meet his eye. He gave her a fake smile without teeth and tried to capture her in a nice genjutsu of a field of flowers.

Kakashi thought this would be a good idea.

Non-threatening, might catch her in it. Maybe he could stop seeing ghosts where there were none if he saw her as herself, a child toying with grass in a field, a young kid, and not the painful memory of the hero he met in his childhood.

It was a bad idea. 

Her eyes widened, she twitched, and then a very different person was staring at him. 

“Nice try, _bakakashi._ ” 

She grinned as she swung a kunai toward his neck, not close or fast enough to cut, but he had to lean back, and she used the chance to drop the kunai and stab his wrist with her fingers, freeing her. She leapt upward again. 

_Or should I think “he”..._

Kakashi wasn’t sure enough to ask her, but… 

… her face changed… it looked like Obito, in mannerisms, hell, she even called him by his old nickname Obito gave him when they were arguing. Her face itself, physically, was the same, but nothing was for sure in a ninja’s life. Even the impossible could be resurrected. 

_Where did she go…_

This was _not_ going to be fun. 

_Welcome to “the universe loves tormenting you with dead friends, part two”._

~*~

It had been a half-seam, about twenty minutes, and she was doing a good job hiding. Every time he thought he sensed her, he went after her, but she wasn’t where he thought she was. 

Asuma’s phrase came to mind. 

_Sakura is no damsel in distress._

He looked up, and he could hear the trees, and thought he heard Sakura to his left a five-or-so meters away. 

He wasn’t going to trust that again. 

He checked to break the genjutsu a moment after she - or Obito - had fled, and everything was the same except the sound of nature came back. Somewhat simple technique, but it had been a good try for a young student who didn’t know many. 

He kept looking for another relaxed-tense five minutes, until she showed up in his face upside down, cheekily grinning. 

“Heya, Kakashi!” 

_Stop talking like Obito._

She sprung to a branch a few meters away. Kakashi couldn’t believe she kept so much of the fight in the trees. Usually students have a hard time with that due to stamina, and of course, not knowing the technique that allowed them to stick their feet to the bark and walk along it. He could tell she hadn’t used it, but who knew if she knew it. 

Sakura put her hands in her pockets, gazing at him without a clear emotion but with _something._ Her shoulders were relaxed, and all of her behavior had changed from the spunky teen that she usually had been most of the day, and from what he saw of her on team assignment day. 

He didn’t know her well, yet, but he knew when someone wasn’t themselves. 

_Kurenai._

He knew. 

He was about to say her name when she started talking. 

“Didja have fun?” she chirped, tilting her head. Kakashi guessed she was referring to their chase in the woods where he couldn’t find a trace of her. Kakashi thought about a response. 

Her face sobered. 

“Do you remember what I said to you? Did you listen?”

He felt his insides freeze. She kept watching him. 

“W-”

“Whether you take me on as a student or not, just remember this… remember what I said to you, bakakashi.” 

After a moment, her body shifted. Her shoulders lowered and she appeared upset, looking down. She turned and jumped away from him, and he didn’t follow. She had looked like herself right then. 

Well. That was… 

_Dear God._

… 

_Is part two over now?_

_… Hell, probably not._

~*~

They almost lost. 

Naruto was clutching his right side where it was bleeding, Sakura looked dazed and about to cry, and Sasuke’s head throbbed, his back hurt, and he wanted to _punch this man in the face_. He took deep breaths to calm himself. 

Naruto had been punched in the side with sensei’s fist when they first started a team attack in the trees, sending Naruto flying, and sensei’s fist must have been coated in some kind of earth technique, because Naruto’s side was torn to ragged skin. Sakura had “had some words with Kakashi-sensei” around the same time Sasuke was being slapped to the ground and was currently holding herself up against the tree trunk. They were all hiding in the branches of a tall tree. Sasuke really needed to study the types of trees again if, on adrenaline, he suddenly can’t remember. Sasuke himself was thrown into 1) a tree and 2) the ground, for his neck and back injuries, respectively, after Naruto was hit and Sakura went to find the actual sensei, because they were being beaten by his clone technique, which if Sasuke has anything to say, it’s that Naruto does it better. 

They had to do this. 

Sasuke looked at Sakura’s glazed eyes and Naruto’s glaring ones - glaring at Sasuke through Naruto’s ragged breathing. 

Sasuke got the message loud and clear. 

_We can’t give up._

“Sakura,” he whispered. 

She jerked from whatever thinking she was doing and looked at him. 

“He’s not in the area,” she replied quietly, “about 1:30 to 2 from us,” she motioned with her arm, “four-ten demi-meters away. But he might have his nin-dogs out.” 

Sasuke nodded. A demi-meter was two meters and four-ten meant forty, so sensei was eighty meters away - far enough not to hear. He didn’t know if their teacher would try to use his trained hunting dogs against them, but he wasn’t going to try it. The dogs couldn’t seriously maim in a training exercise, though. The dogs might hear them and report to Kakashi what they said, but… 

… 

He had a plan. 

~*~

Sakura was trying to breathe. She stood with her back and arm against a tree trunk, right hand clutching her shirt in front of her stomach. She shuddered with shivers. 

\---

_ <Obito, try something.> _

_/Yeah?/_

_ <If you talk to him, would it distract him enough for us to get away?> _

Sakura had only meant to tail him away from the boys and then circle back. She didn’t think he would be so intent on finding her. 

_/Yeah, I could, but… it will bring up old memories. Ones I would really rather you not see. You’re so young./_

_ <Do it. This is our training to be a ninja. We can’t cut corners or be soft against an opponent much stronger than us. Remember that?> _

_/Yeah…/_

_ <I know. Don’t hurt him, just… chat a bit until he startles where he won’t run after me.> _

_/Oh, I can do_ that _,/_ Obito muttered, / _but I think it will be pretty traumatic for both of us. All of us,/_ he clarified. 

_ <Just… don’t do that,> _ she muttered. < _Try and keep it light, as light as possible. I’m sure showing up will be enough to freak him out. > _

Sakura wasn’t planning on telling Kakashi this way. She hoped to clear it up after they had passed the test. She had changed her outfit up, and even didn’t wear her orange goggles today just in case it tipped him off too early… but she guessed she didn’t have to worry about that now. 

They approached, and Sakura moved in close with Obito’s help, and then, she let Obito switch with her. They had become so familiar it never felt strange. 

He had started with Bakakashi, his old nickname for Kakashi, out of habit when Kakashi tried to put Sakura in a genjutsu and Obito broke it, but fled when Kakashi - as Obito interpreted him - looked about to break down or cry or somethin’. 

After about twenty minutes of them leading him farther away while staying out of sight, he dropped down to see Kakashi. 

“Heya, Kakashi!” he chirped. 

Then Obito stood back and watched him. 

Sakura mentally squeezed his hand. 

Obito was seeing his best friend for the second time in ten or so years, but it was basically the first, since this time Kakashi could be sure it was Obito and not a ghost or strange child rambling. There was no more doubting after this. 

Deep breaths. 

Obito felt like he was thirteen again, and didn’t quite know what to do. Sakura reassured him. 

He tried to relax, taking in the man his teammate and friend had become. 

“Didja have fun?” he chirped, tilting her head as Sakura chuckled at the wry humor of running Kakashi around the woods.

Obito _tried_ to break the ice light-heartedly, but it felt awkward, and he dropped the pretense. He was glad to see Kakashi, of course, but… 

It hurt, talking to him like this. After the graveyard. Looking through to him with a face he didn’t know, but… there was never another option. It would happen sooner or later. 

“Do you remember what I said to you? Did you listen?”

“W-”

“Whether you take me on as a student or not, just remember this… remember what I said to you, bakakashi.” 

_Remember what I said when I saw you at my grave those few months ago._

Obito and Sakura stood for a moment in melancholy, and then Obito gently pushed her forward. She resumed control and flinched, worried and scared and hesitant. He told her she should go, and Sakura wasted no time in turning and fleeing, the grinding knife of Obito’s pain pulling in her chest. 

\---

She could still feel his memories pulsing in her chest, in her head, see the pictures… 

Obito had enough of reminiscing. 

_/Hey, you need to wake up! They need you,/_ Obito tried to rouse her. 

… see the look on Kakashi’s face as he pulled Rin away as she cried, in order to save the only teammate he _could_ still save. 

She could feel the crush of rocks on her chest. She tried to breathe. 

“Sakura.” Sasuke startled her. 

She checked her mental map of where everyone was. Obito helped her find Kakashi. 

“He’s not in the area, about 1:30 to 2 from us, four-ten demi-meters away. But he might have his nin-dogs out.” 

She was tired. She hurt, inside and out. 

But she didn’t want to give up. 

Plan A had been to divide and conquer by tiring Kakashi out and leading him into a rope trap they set up by the large rut, but none of them accounted for Kakashi using the clone technique, kage bunshin. Instead of all three of them able to attack him and lead him to the trap, two had to fight the clone while one left to find his real location. Plan B was to attack all at once and take the bells. 

Sasuke’s Plan B was a bit different, and Sakura thought Kakashi won’t enjoy it at all. 

Or maybe he would. She had been wrong before. 

Naruto got his paint bombs ready. 

~*~

If having students was always this tiring, he might give them to Kurenai. Or Guy. Just kidding, he wasn’t mean enough to put them in Guy’s care. For all that Guy was kind, he overdid training a _lot_. 

Kakashi thought he was calmed down now, but he wasn’t sure. She better not do that again. He didn’t think he could handle it if- 

_Rustle rustle._

_Naruto._

_How the hell does that kid have a distinct rustling noise?_

“Heya, Kakashi-sensei!” he yelled, slinging powder paint balls down to create a tri-color cloud of smoke to hide in. 

_Will all of them say that?_

The smell globbed to Kakashi’s clothes. He wouldn’t be able to smell anything clearly now, so that was clever. But he could still hear Naruto; for having fox-like attributes, he didn’t pick up the _subtlety_ one. 

Kakashi could’ve blown away the smoke with a wind jutsu, but he felt that would be mean to their hard work. This was a test, after all, and if he sees them band together to attack him and defend each other, he would know they deserve to pass. 

The colored screen dispersed into the air, leaving a translucent haze behind that swirled with red, pink, and blue, and he could hear Naruto snickering in the trees. 

A loud footstep on wood, and Kakashi turned left to parry a strike from behind from Sakura’s fist again. Her eyes gleamed, and the brief red startled him before Sasuke appeared from her right with a spiral of rope as her momentum turned Kakashi to his right, away from Sasuke. Kakashi could have dodged, but it had been hours and they must be exhausting their resources, and he had seen how well they work together. This test wasn’t just a brief assessment of skill; it was teamwork needed to become a team, and he would never let a team pass without it. 

He still darted behind Sasuke, leaving a small log where Kakashi had been standing, surprising the boy, and went to feint an attack. 

Sakura tensed and leapt for Kakashi. So did Naruto from the smoke. Kakashi deflected Sakura and let Naruto cling to his back like a monkey - Naruto licked his ear, which was dumb enough to distract him as Sasuke slung the rope at Kakashi, the weighted end spinning around, and Kakashi was now tied up with a genin hanging off of him. 

“Hey, I’m stuck to him!” Naruto wriggled impatiently. 

Make that a genin _tied_ to him. 

Sakura pushed herself up, cockily leaning back and pushing a hand to her forehead; it looked like she went to adjust goggles but went to sweeping back her few bangs instead. 

“So? How was that, Kakashi-sensei?” 

He was going to tell them they didn’t get the bells, but Sasuke proudly flung his hand up, showing the two silver bells hanging from his hand. Sakura laughed faux-haughtily. Naruto screamed “yeah!” in Kakashi’s ear, making it ring. 

“Okay, get off, ya monkey.” 

~*~ 

Now Obito knew how messed up this was. He wanted to cry. Fear, frustration, panic, were the first things that flew through his mind. 

He checked to soothe his first fear and felt the rhythmic heartbeat of the child, and then felt their warm, fuzzy thoughts brush his. 

They didn’t die. He didn’t kill them by being here. 

_Oh God thank you._

The child was currently moving on their own as well. 

And the child was currently happily toddling toward their parents. Her, actually, he realized as her thoughts flickered into his with memories. 

_“See, this is pink! This is_ your _hair!”_

_“Green!” she giggles, “And green!”_

_“Yes, your eyes are very green!”_

_“Yours!”_

_“Yes, mine are too! See, we’re matching!”_

He saw a little girl with vibrant pink hair, soft porcelain skin, and green eyes that made him think of running water and happiness. Her mother showed the baby her chubby face in the mirror, playing with her hair. 

_“Matching!” she giggles, eyes full of delight._

He didn’t know what to do, but he saw her parents in the present and wondered if he still had a certain ability. 

He looked, really looked, at their faces, and tried to capture the memory in his mind of her laughter and theirs. He could. He briefly, belatedly, wondered if her eyes would change color as his used to, but they apparently didn’t, as he used his ability to save memory in eidetic detail. 

The sharingan, a name for copying wheel, that was passed through his family to him, used to change his iris from his brown to a ruby red, and a pattern of three black commas pointing inward toward his pupil would circle through it like water. It’s definitely better that he could use the sharingan without it showing up, because he didn’t think about it and that would have freaked the child’s parents out. 

Then he tried to carefully send it into the child’s mind. It worked. Now she would have a picture-perfect memory of her parents, no matter what happened later in life. 

Her mother cooed as the baby, Sakura, toddled over to her. 

“Yes, come here!” 

Obito wanted to give her a little encouragement. He reached out and poked her little orb of mirth, bright like the sun, as a way of saying hello. She couldn’t talk yet, so he didn’t have to worry yet. Her response was to shine brighter, as if blossoming, and laugh out loud as she stumbled onto her mother’s knee. 

He didn’t know what was going on, but everything was happy and peaceful. He still had a lot of fears and worries, but he could bide his time for now and think later. So, silently, he laughed with them. 

~*~ 

“So. You guys passed. BUT-”

Naruto groaned, loudly, and kept groaning until everyone was staring at him. He looked at everyone’s eyes. 

Then he stopped. 

Currently standing by the dirt road, where they first started their exam, were the three genin and their official teacher. 

“Come _on_ ! We passed, alright, did _alll_ the things! It’s time to ce-le-brate!” Naruto cheered. 

Then he looked at Kakashi as if daring him to say otherwise. Oh, Kakashi dared. 

The three slouching genin were looking at him like wary wolves. Oh, this was going to be funny. 

Kakashi was still covered in colored powder across his dark clothing. It especially stood out against the black of his mask, pants, shoes, and vest. 

Kakashi was twenty-seven. Kakashi had to do his own laundry. He had nothing against a little revenge now and then. 

“Now, every person who got a bell passed. So who’s the genin who didn’t pass…”

Ohh, there was the hateful eyes… 

“ … and who’s the genin who has to go back to the academy?” 

They looked murderous. This was hilarious. 

Sakura went to push up goggles and found bangs again. 

Sasuke beat her to it. 

“So… if only two people were meant to pass… then why test us on teamwork at all?”

_Little shit he_ knew _did they figure it out or did Obito tell them…_

“So… Kakashi.” 

_First name again. Here we go._

She swaggered forward. “If only two people who get the bells can pass… then _you_ failed.” 

The boys posed, hips out and hands on their mouths. 

“Ooooohhhhhh…” 

_Jeez._

She went to push up goggles again and failed. 

“Okay, so here’s how this is going to go…”

They tensed. 

“You pass!”

“WHAT,” Naruto burst. 

“Yep. That’s it. You pass. Bye,” Kakashi turned away, pivoting. 

“Oh no you don’t.” 

There was a hand on his shirt. 

Sakura was grinning evilly. 

“What about the customary team dinner for new teams? It’s _tradition_.” 

_She knew little SHIT._

“Well… that tradition had died years ago.”

“So why not bring it back.” She stared at him with old eyes. Her green eyes seemed brown in the dimming light of the sun. 

Kakashi sighed. “Fine then.” 

“Yeah!” Naruto screamed, going around and slapping hands. “We’re _nin-ja_ , oh _ye-ah_.”

Team dinner was sure to be interesting. He wondered who would do the cooking. 

And when he went home, he had a nice report to write for Hiruzen, and Kakashi guaranteed he would be yelling at the Hokage for _what the hell_ was _up with_ these genin. 

Ah, childhood, and crazy personalities. 

_Ousagekko-ka._

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thanks so much to Elena Parker, whose story, Incarnate of Obito Uchiha, I read and couldn’t forget about.   
> Thank you especially to everyone who has waited for this story!


	2. Writhing Paws: Part 1

“Dammit!” Naruto shrieked. 

The team of genin was trying to catch a Havana Brown cat, but they just slipped away from Naruto. Perched on slab walls of concrete about 22 centimeters wide, in a part of the village still being constructed, Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto were trying to catch the Havana Brown as part of a mission request. This cat had supposedly broken into one (1) café, two (2) weapons storehouses, one (1) shinobi’s home, and one (1) home of Sakura, frightening her father when he found them in the pantry before he politely let the feline out the front door. The genin were very ready to catch this cat before it decided snooping in _their_ homes, too. 

It had been about a month since their test of teamwork. 

“I got him!- No wait-!” 

Sakura’s hands met empty air, but she didn’t slip from the wall. 

Sasuke growled at the frustrating cat. 

Sakura leapt down after the cat, shouted in surprise, and the boys couldn’t hear her anymore. 

Naruto carefully stepped over to where she last was, peering down. “...Sakura?” 

After a moment, he cursed and yelled to their sensei, who was observing the scene, not supposed to help unless required, mainly there for supervision. 

“Sensei I don’t _see_ her!” 

Sasuke spat a word his mother would have pinched him for. Kakashi jumped to Naruto’s position, observing below the wall. Sasuke was tired of waiting and jumped to the precarious edge of space on Kakashi’s right. He saw a hole, about a meter wide on every side and rounded, crumbling concrete along the seams.

_Why can’t Naruto see her? He should be able to sense her from here!_

Naruto was fidgeting until he had to ask, “Where’s Sakura, sensei? Can’t we go after her?”

“No,” he sighed, concerned but not anxious, which put Sasuke on edge. “I need to file a report. She fell into Neko-sama’s lair. I need to get a pass to go get her, if they don’t lead her out themselves.” 

Sasuke clenched his fist and hissed. Kakashi glanced at him, surprised for a moment. 

“Don’t worry. She should be fine. They won’t hurt her down there. Neko-baa doesn’t like injured children, especially not on her watch.” 

_Neko-baa...the Grandmother Cat?_

_What the-_

_How-_

_I need to get Sakura out of there!_

~*~

Kakashi sauntered into the office. 

“What do you need, Kakashi?” 

The Third Hokage, a man of quiet but firm stature, wore a red robe with shortened sleeves - only some knew about the padded black armor underneath - and a ceremonial veil of tradition from his family of three rectangular, white bamboo panels sewn together in rows that cascaded down the back of his head to his shoulders. Black circles were painted onto each one, and a white circlet held the veil in place. Atop his head was the veil of Konoha: a triangular, white hat, pointed forward, with the top smoothed down until it reached the front point; emblazoned with rich, red paint in detailed calligraphy, shimmering orange detailing almost invisible over the red, is the symbol of Konoha: 火 - fire. 

The man himself was lean and at old age, weathered and freckled with sunspots from his years in the field, and later the battlefield, tanned dark from the sun and his heritage. He had a kindly demeanor toward children, however, and especially toward Naruto, whom he adopted a while back after his parents died. It did not mean he could neglect his duties, though, and he wasn’t always able to give Naruto the attention he needed, much like with the Hokage’s own children. Seeing how his own children turned out led him to pursue more active parenting with his grandchild and adoptive son, but he was tiring. 

Kakashi wondered at what the Hokage planned to do if he ever was given the chance to retire - go back to his estate and raise his remaining kids? Kakashi pondered whether Hiruzen planned to retire, or if he gave up on hope long ago, after his student, Naruto’s parent, died, and the village was handed back to him, the hat with all its weight. 

“So? What did you need?” Hiruzen took a glance around, stiffening. “I see you’re missing a student. This wouldn’t happen to be relating to the cat mission you were given?”

“Gold,” Kakashi replied, essentially saying “bingo”. 

Hiruzen sighed heavily. 

Naruto bounced on his feet, waiting to go find Sakura, and Sasuke gripped a kunai, with white leaf around his fingers. The tense grip reminded Kakashi of after the Uchiha clan compound… 

No. Don’t think about that. 

After a moment of relative silence, where Hiruzen ruffled through drawers and papers in his desk for the forms, Naruto piped up. 

“Are we going yet?” He had taken that corded bracelet out of his pocket and started winding it in his fingers. 

“ _We’re_ not. Once Hokage-sama finds the form for a request to the ninneko, I’ll have to fill it out, get two secondary forms, fill them out, then go around town to find where I enter the requests and wait for a ninneko to lead me into the tunnels to get Sakura.”

“But that’ll take too long!” 

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. Sasuke doesn’t often show impatience. 

“What if she gets hurt?” Sasuke flipped the kunai in his left hand and clenched the handle, staring Kakashi with brittle eyes. 

Kakashi was worried about her. He wanted to break the rules, but the ninneko wouldn’t hurt Sakura - her tie to a summoner would ensure that - and he had to show the boys they couldn’t always ignore the rules, even now - especially with summons. Breaking rules with summons could get a ninja killed. 

“She won’t be hurt.” He was fairly certain. 

Unless she falls down some stairs again. Because stairs seem to be her mortal enemy, along with bridges. 

“How are you so sure.” _Wow, he is really worried. Not too surprised, though…_

Hiruzen placed the two-page form on the desk. “Here. Good luck. And boys, Sakura should be fine. The ninneko have no reason to hurt her, and children who fall in are usually treated courteously.” 

Naruto muttered, watching Hiruzen in the corners of his eyes, head down. “If they’re as ‘courteous’ as the people at my home, I wouldn’t bet on that.” 

Naruto looked away and didn’t see Hiruzen’s shock and concern. Naruto stalked out the door in seconds, and Sasuke followed. 

Hiruzen and Kakashi simply looked at each other for a minute. 

“Please don’t let them go-”

“I know, I know.” Kakashi shrugged and gave a look. “They probably will, though.”

“May the goddess be with you,” Hiruzen muttered, picking up a brush to resume work. It looked like land applications. Ugh. 

Better go check on the boys before they decide to run off without any supplies. _I better explain why I’m following the rules this time, and how I’m not just being a ‘stuck-up adult’._

_…_

_And they’re gone._

He went by the Usagi first, but Miyoko didn’t know where Sasuke went. He asked if she had seen him but she didn’t respond. Kakashi asked if Sasuke had been inside and she said no. 

Well. Great. 

She gave him a bag of food and supplies for a trip through tunnels, saying the kids will be hungry when he finds them. 

Sometimes, Kakashi really wishes she would act like an adult and just tell him the truth without roundabout explanations. Of course, he is a hypocrite and she is not an adult, so there’s that. 

~*~

I walked through the hall, the Havana cat occasionally pausing and glancing back to make sure I was following them. They walked on my right, a half meter in front, while I muttered to Obito, trying to mask my confusion. 

_ <Why are we here? Why would Neko-baa-sama want us here?> _

_/One,_ you, _not me, and two, she might have seen something suspicious about us and wants to check it won’t harm the village, or I have no idea./_

I sighed. _ <Well, I guess we’re going to find out. You’ve been here before, right? Could you take the lead? Maybe she would recognize you.> _

I didn’t say it, but we both knew I was afraid of the dark hall and closed space, the unfamiliarity and lack of my friends. 

_/Yeah, I can try. Be ready to come back if they start reacting badly,/_ Obito referred to the cat leading them. 

_ <Okay.> _

I had leapt down the wall after the cat, onto an odd patch of light-colored dirt in the concrete maze, before it gave way under my feet. Obito and I had shrieked as we slid down a slide of gravel, my legs luckily, mostly, protected by my long shorts, until we slowed to a stop, and Obito recognized the assorted symbols carved into the concrete as ones he saw on a mission into Neko-baa’s cave, the clan cats’ language mixed in with chakra-concealing seals. 

The walls were a crumbly gray, rounded like a tube, except for the narrow, flat ground where they walked. I could have reached my hand up, stood on the tips of my toes, and barely been able to brush the ceiling. The cat seemed to be staring at me, and when I got up, they turned and walked a while, looking back at me. Then, I somewhat knew this was intentional in leading me here. 

Many actions happened very quickly as I switched with Obito. 

Obito hummed, clearing his throat, and tried not to tense as he put his hands in his pockets. 

Our guide stiffened, twitched, then whirled around. 

_“What-?”_ the cat started speaking, but Obito’s shifting and glance to the side interrupted them. 

Obito _apparently_ wasn’t startled at the cat talking, but I was and jumped inside. 

_ <The cats can talk?! What?> _

_/Long story, but summons usually have some method of speaking, altered vocal chords, telepathy, a different language that humans can learn, you know?/_

_ <What?!> _

_/Oh, eheheh,/_ he laughed awkwardly. _/Right, the cats that work with Neko-oba-chan are mostly summons./_

Summons are animals that work with ninja through a contract and assist each other in various tasks. A ninja in their offtime will do favors for their animal clan, while the animal clan will send someone to assist the ninja, sometimes in battle, if the ninja uses a summoning seal or scroll. 

Kakashi’s summons were mostly raised by him, and they live with him in their offtime, so his “clan” is very different than the average animal clan. The Inuzuka family also lives with and raises their partners. 

I wasn’t aware that _almost every cat_ with Neko-baa was a _summon._ Including the cat my team tried to catch. 

_ <Oh my god.> _

I was still taking this in as Obito glanced back to the summon and responded. 

“Hey, there, um…” He paused and licked his lips. “Do you… remember me?” 

The cat stared, whispering. “Oh my god… you’re- _Obito,_ I-” 

The cat cut off with a wail and ran to him. He crouched down and opened his arms. The cat rammed Obito’s stomach, sounding like they were crying. 

“Oh my god- I thought- but you _died_ and I-” 

“Yeah, I did,” Obito whispered, “and we don’t know what happened to bring me back, but,” he smiled, “good to see you again.” 

The cat’s ears flicked. “We? The girl, Sakura, she can hear… ?” 

“Yeah,” Obito grinned, “she can still hear us. She’s aware of everything, and we can talk to each other without words.” 

“Oh.” The cat looked up at Obito’s face curiously. 

Obito and I deduced the cat wanted to see if I _was_ aware but didn’t want to ask, so I flipped with Obito and shot the cat a grin. 

“Heya.” 

The cat flinched. “Woah, that’s- that’s…new.” They cocked their head. “You can sure tell the difference.” 

I was curious. “How could you tell when I switched, since we were behind you?” 

The cat flicked his tail. “I _can_ sense chakra, and yours is _very_ different. Obito, do you remember when you first met me?” Now the cat was nervous. 

Obito took my place and thought about it. “When I went into Neko-baa-sama’s cave, there were a line of cats with younger ones watching me. You were in the middle of the row, about the fourth kitten down?” 

I noticed Obito used the respect suffix, -sama, when speaking aloud, and figured I should do the same. 

The cat trilled in glee. “I knew it! I knew we were meant to be together.” 

_/Summons choose partners, usually when they are young, as a permanent team member of sorts,/_ Obito explained before I was confused. 

Obito raised an eyebrow for the cat to continue, and they did. 

_/He,/_ Obito clarified, _/I wasn’t sure earlier, but this is the same cat./_

“After you left the cave, the sensei conferred about whether one of us would be assigned to you as your summon if you pursued a clan contract, and I was chosen as your summon.” He slouched, suddenly. “I was so excited. When you reached summoning age… but then your mission…” 

“Ah.” Obito didn’t want to be reminded. The smoke, fear, falling rocks… 

He abruptly snapped out of the sensation as he saw the cat watching him. 

“Want to go?” 

“Yeah,” Obito nodded and stood up. 

_ <Want me to take the lead, or should I hang back?> _

_/I dunno./_

“Hey, Itotsu, do you think I should stay as we walk? Neko-baa-sama wanted to see Sakura, right?” 

“She can see you both,” Itotsu replied, “but it’s up to you who wants to take the walk. I’m called Itoshi - you can call me Itogi if you want - now, since Itotsu was my kitten name. I’m going to tell the clan as we go that you’re here. They’ll be excited!” With a happy chirp, he sauntered forward, almost moving his paws in a dance. 

“Okay then, Ito-ji.” They both snickered at some inside joke, Itoshi making a huffing noise with his mouth. 

_/So do you want to…?/_

_ <No, I think I’m good. I’ll see enough of Neko-baa once I get there. You can enjoy your new welcoming party,> _ I teased with mirth. 

Obito had a reply ready, but we started reaching small holes, apparently an intersection of sorts, where cats were coming out. The first one we saw stopped and stared. 

Itoshi raised his tail. “Obito’s home!” 

The new cat trilled and ran back through the tunnel. More who heard began doing that paw dance, leaping, and running back to tell others. They moved aside as Obito and Itoshi walked down. 

Once we passed the hubbub, Itoshi murmured. “I’d like to know more about your situation, but seeing as we’re in clan central, I’ll ask later.” 

“Of course.” 

Obito was overjoyed to see so many people, in a sense, gleefully surprised that he was here, and not grieved. The two people who knew about Obito now, not counting my parents, weren’t only glad to see him. It was a nice change. 

I shoved him playfully, and he shoved back. 

We entered the large cavern after passing three more intersections, and I guessed it had been about a quarter-and-half seam since we first fell into the tunnel. After the third intersection, Itoshi told us Neko-baa had heard of Obito being with me and gave us “express permission”. I was confused until Obito and Itoshi tensed, and they began playfully sprinting down the tunnel, weaving between each other and laughing. It apparently meant running as fast as someone wanted. It also seemed to mean the last intersection was clear, with heads watching us through holes as neither boy slowed down until reaching the cavern. 

It was huge. There was no way this was all under the construction site, and there had been quite a few turns while they were running, I thought. 

I heard the voice before my eyes focused in the dark. A large black cat, seemingly larger than a tiger, curled on a giant, pale pink, mostly flat cushion, which reminded me of a futon, a flat bed on the ground that was common in our village, Konoha, especially amongst ninja, who needed to be used to sleeping close to the ground or with sparse cushioning - or none at all. I wondered at the strange living arrangements, and if the other cats got their own cushions too. 

A voice I could only describe as large and rumbling shook the corridor when we walked in. It gave me a weird feeling in my bones, from more than the sound, but Obito didn’t feel it. Warm and clinging to my soul, as if on my chakra, but when I shifted my chakra consciously, the feeling didn’t move. 

“So… I welcome someone new and someone old.”

“Hey, I’m not that old!” Obito squeaked with my voice. _Oh my god._ Cats that slunk from corridors in time to hear both speakers chuckled. “I’m mentally thirteen!” 

She saddened. “… Yes… you are. I wish it wasn’t so.” 

Obito shifted uncomfortably, and I wasn’t sure why until he spoke. “I catch your leaf, there, but. If it never happened, I’d have never met Sakura, the way I am now. I never could have helped raise her the way I have been able to.”

I was tearing up inside. Neko-baa looked similar, but without the waterworks. 

“I never could have seen her grow up the way I am. So,” he smiled lopsidedly, tilting his head to the right, “I don’t regret it, after everything. I couldn’t have wished for more.” 

_And as much as there could have been different, that is completely true._

For a moment, I heard and felt Obito’s thought as my own, the overwhelming pride and joy and honesty and soft love warming me. For a moment, we heard everything, and it was the most comforting feeling I’d ever been. 

We were back to ourselves, separate, still talking _thank you I love you you too_ with emotion that blurred together, as Neko-baa started talking again, welcoming us both, and the cats nearby called for a celebration. 

As some cats ran off, Neko-baa explained to me the basics of the clan, as I’d never been told them, and Obito wanted me to hear it from her. We ended up talking for a long time, me sitting or standing or walking around as I asked questions and we talked. 

For one, Neko-baa is the clan leader, but a human addressed as Neko-baa helped with human relations, and was also a clan leader, but couldn’t leave her home as much anymore. 

_ <That makes sense now,> _I muttered. 

The human Neko-baa lived aboveground, and a message tunnel led to her house along with various escape routes, but no direct paths, in case anyone ever tried to take the cat clan out and targeted her. 

The cat Neko-baa was around forty years old supposedly, but Obito told me she’s actually almost fifty now. She’s nearing the end of her life, and to protect the clan, she doesn’t tell her actual age anymore. 

When Neko-baa saw my expression change, she winked. She knew and apparently was okay with Obito telling me. 

Cats are weird. 

Cool, but-

“Hey!” A quiet voice called. For a second, I thought it was Obito, but he looked at the cats by the left tunnels. I still had my back to the tunnel I came through, and multiple passageways entered to Neko-baa’s room, some big, most small. 

“Look at that!” 

The next voice I knew. 

“SAKURA! WE CAME TO RESCUE YOU!! ARE YOU OKAAAAAAY?!” 

Oh. _Naruto. And- wait, Sasuke?! Why does he look so sulky? He usually doesn’t look like that._

“Yo.” He tried to play it cool. “We’re here to rescue you.” He eyed the cats carefully as they walked around him and sniffed. Some started to chatter, but Itoshi waved his tail and made a quick hiss - a shush sound - and turned to me. I leaned down. 

“Hey...do the boys know about you and…?”

“Yeah, but we try to keep it on the down-low. Sasuke and Naruto both know, but they’ll play dumb if asked.” 

“Ok.” He tilted his head. 

“I’ll let them know it’s safe to talk to you guys, but only in here. I can’t have them muttering to every stray cat they see.”

“True, true.”

Naruto tackled me in a hug as he barreled across the room. When Sasuke finally waltzed his lazy, emo way over here, I grabbed him in a hug. 

_“Good to see you.”_

He whispered back in my ear. _“I thought I lost you...I was so scared.”_

“Hey, whatcha guys doin’?”

_“I’ll never leave you,”_ I breathed. 

_“...you know what I mean,”_ he quietly complained. Not just in memories, but me alive. 

_“I know._ Okay, come here Naruto!”

“Yeah!” He joined the tackle hug. 

_“Oof.”_

“Haha!” This was fun. 

“Okay, kids,” Itoshi called, “now that you’re down here, your sensei will be worried. This would be a problem _if_ you weren’t welcome here. We can take you to Neko-baa upstairs and you can wait with her until your sensei gets the paperwork cleared and comes to retrieve you. We can send a missive telling him your location. 

“Wait how can you talk?-”

“You know our sensei?”

Naruto and Sasuke had very different first thoughts here. 

Mine was, “Bakashi has to do paperwork? Ha!”

Oops. My tongue slipped. Or maybe Obito and I both said it. 

The boys were staring at me, giving me looks. 

They needed to know if it was safe to talk about that here. 

“On the surface, we can’t mention it, but here, they know. They met Obito a long time ago.”

_/I’m not_ that _old!/_ he teased again. I huffed in laughter. 

~*~

Kakashi stared at the evil sword that had taken too many lives in the past decade: the paperwork required to contact the cat clan, verify his _students,_ plural now, were with them, and more forms to gain entry to go retrieve them. 

He slammed his head on the desk, jokingly wishing for death, then remembered Sakura and Obito would nag his head off about not thinking destructive thoughts. 

Four of the people he loved were down there and he had to deal with _paperwork._

_Ousagekko-ka, smite me now. Please._

~*~

“Kakashi… I wanted to talk to you. … Is that okay?”

Sakura approached Kakashi late, the night of their team formation, once Naruto and Sasuke had passed out after their chaotic cooking adventure and attempt to wrangle Kakashi into playing a board game, eventually watching a projector movie together that Sasuke brought over. 

They had ended up deciding on Sakura’s house. When Sakura asked her parents about having the house alone, they agreed she could while they went out for a date night. Kakashi listened in and watched behind some foliage across the street, even though she told the team to hang back, out of sight. He had known them a year ago, and he realized belatedly the child they spoke of was _Sakura,_ whom he met only a few months ago. The boys seemed to know her parents well too. Sakura claimed she didn’t want her parents grilling Kakashi for a seam about treating his team well, and that sounded likely, with what he knew of them. 

“…I’ve been wanting to. Is there somewhere more private?”

Sakura looked down at Naruto sleeping on the floor. Sasuke was in the guest room down the hall behind them, wrapped in the comforter on the bed. 

“Nah,” she shrugged, looking back to Kakashi, “they both know already.” 

“Oh.”

She poked Naruto with a foot, smiling softly. “I don’t think they’re going to wake up anytime soon.” 

“…” Kakashi went first. “What’s going on? What’s up with you?” 

As he spoke, Sakura tiptoed around Naruto and sunk down onto the couch opposite Kakashi.

The two brown couches were set facing each other, angled toward the television, a stringy rug between them that Sakura said her mother wants replaced. The front door of the apartment opens to an empty space for walking, where a window and balcony sat on the far wall. The balcony was actually built later on, as Sakura kept climbing out the large window, so the top-hinged window used as a door became the side-hinged window meant to be used like a door. To the right was the living room, and on the right wall the television was mounted, a small boxy screen. Currently, the television was taken off its mount and sat on the floor, while a white cloth was spread across the wall as a projecting screen. Projectors were much cheaper than televisions, so they were used for most movies, while the television was for live news and broadcasts, along with serialized shows. Opposite the wall with the television, left of the front door, is the kitchen, and further down, the hallways to the bedrooms. 

Sakura leaned against the couch by the front door; Kakashi rested by the one near the balcony. 

“…I don’t know what to say.”

He leaned back. “Just start. I can sit here and listen or answer questions if you want.”

She glanced to the side for a long while. 

“…Do you want to talk to him?”

Kakashi jolted. 

“Um… maybe that wasn’t the best way to start that… so, um… yeah, you were right. I’m sure you figured it out after the forest and everything-”

“Wait.” He held up a hand, the other across his eyes. 

“Kakashi-”

“Just- a minute.”

A few minutes. He breathed deeply while Sakura fidgeted, glancing to the side often, murmuring a song under her breath. 

His thoughts were whirling. Once he could talk without thinking of the bridge and the graveyard, Kakashi spoke. Before he could get emotional, he had to clear something up, so…

“Hey, Sakura?”

“Hm?”

“…” Kakashi decided for a less invasive phrasing. “Could you check with- _Obito-”_ his voice almost cracked, “about whether that thing we talked about the last time we saw each other… it really happened? And does he know for sure that it’s still active?”

Sakura startled at something as Kakashi spoke of “it”, and she closed her eyes for a second, moving her lips. She wrung her hands against each other in a comforting habit. She looked up. 

“Yeah, he said ‘Yeah’, but… whatever it is you guys are talking about…” she gave him an uneasy glance, shoulders lowering, “it really is freaking him out.” She twitched, almost smirking. “He really didn’t want me saying that part so- _Ha!”_ She wheezed, and Kakashi was dumbfounded as she clutched her sides, curling away from nothing. 

It looked like she was being tickled. Obviously, Kakashi could guess who was doing the tickling, but had no idea how or why. 

“ _Kakashi-_ he- _wheeze-_ he’s trying to stop m-me from-” she laughed, “-from telling you how he’s _feeling_ , grk-” She twisted in her seat, and if he didn’t know she had another soul with her, and who it was, he would be incredibly worried she was being possessed or some jutsu was used on her. “-and telling you ‘embarrassing stories about his childhood-’”

That sounded like him. 

Sakura froze. 

He couldn’t see her face; she was still curled inward from defending from a tickle attack of sorts. 

“…Sakura?” 

Nothing. 

“It’s fine if he doesn’t want to talk about it.”

He reached over slowly. He put a hand on her shoulder when she still didn’t move. 

“…Sakura?”

She chuckled, and he knew by the sound - and then he quickly checked the chakra signature. 

Kakashi fell back in the seat. 

She paused, and the silence fell through the air like dew. 

Kakashi started to speak, but Obito beat him to it. 

“It’s fine if you don’t want to talk to me this way. I’d understand.”

“No, it’s… I’m still getting used to it.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah.”

_Damn it, use your words!_

“Um.” Kakashi wanted to know. “Is Sakura there?”

“Yeah- ah, I better explain how this works, sorta. What we know about it.”

Kakashi nodded. Obito looked at him with her green eyes, and Kakashi had to say, that was acutely strange in a similar way to the lotus incident, except he could count on trusting who he was talking to. 

“So… I’m in _her_ b- a- no _wait_ ”

Kakashi snickered. 

“Hey, I’m _trying!_ Jeezus, can you not?”

_Ha._

“Been a while since I teased you like this.”

_Wait I said that out loud-_

“Yeah.” 

Obito pulled his legs up on the couch and hugged them, a little lump with a tuft of pink. 

“Hey, Sakura said no feet on the couch.”

_“Hey, Sakura said no feet on the couch!”_ Obito mimicked with a high voice, then cringed sheepishly. “Okay, okay.”

He kept his feet on the couch, looking at Kakashi. 

“So I love playing around, but I do need to talk.”

“Yeah. Can Sakura hear what we’re saying?”

“Yeah, we can both go ‘blank’, but Sakura and I usually are awake at the same time, jyetta.”

Kakashi sent him a confused look, and not because of the foreign word he liked to tack at the end of his sentences. 

“Ah, ‘going blank’ is how we say when we’re not mentally there. She can tune out and not pay attention so she can’t hear, feel, and see anything, and vice-versa. We usually don’t, but if someone wants to have a private conversation or something, then yeah. And we’ve practiced so we’re good at doing it quickly and on command.”

Naruto suddenly snored loudly between their feet, and both of them paused for a minute. Silence. No one woke up. 

Obito looked down fondly. “The Yondaime’s kid, huh?”

_“Shh,”_ Kakashi cut a hand over his throat, “they might hear you!”

“‘A dead man is bound by no laws,’” he quoted and leaned back. “But yeah, I haven’t gone shouting it out, jyetta? I’ve heard about the law. Her parents had to explain it to Sakura since she lived in her head with someone who had lived through part of the Third Shinobi War and didn’t know any aftermath.”

_Maybe if I had done better, you would’ve gotten to see the war end…_

_Don’t think like that. No._

Obito leaned forward. “Pretty funny when she met Naruto and almost adopted him on the spot. It was _so_ hard not to laugh.”

Kakashi huffed at the thought. “Sounds pretty fun…” He looked down the hall.

_I’m pretty sure I hear Sasuke up…_

“So? What else didja have to ask?” Obito was looking down the hallway too. It had been about a seam, forty minutes, of conversation with heavy pauses, which started around the black hour; it should be too late for anyone to be up. 

“I have a lot, but we’ll need to stop for tonight. Unless you have silence tags?”

He shook his head, looking at the hall. 

_So they might, but don’t want to pull them out now… If Sasuke’s watching with the Sharingan, he might read our lips, so…_

“Okay. So about that earlier question-”

“Yes. He is still a _major_ threat, and…” he glanced to check Sasuke wasn’t watching, and he whispered, “…he’s been in Konoha.” He put a hand up to hide his lips and mouthed, _“The Uchiha Massacre.”_

_Oh god._

_I was supposed to protect them_ why- 

“Don’t. It’s not your fault.” 

_Sigh._

Still with a hand up, “You heard about the kid there that defended Sasuke, and saved the girl?”

Kakashi nodded. _Wait. Oh god…_

“She also hid the small child, and she had pink hair.” He motioned a thumb to himself. “And she wasn’t alone.”

_I could’ve- She had to- By themselves-_

Kakashi jerked as Sakura’s small arms wrapped around his neck. 

“It’s not your fault.” A breath of words in his ear. 

“Feels like it.”

“No.”

They heard the gentle shush of Sasuke’s footsteps coming toward them, and Obito bounced back on the couch. He gave one last, soft smile to Kakashi. 

“Later!”

Sakura added, “We can talk again another time too. It’s getting late.”

“Sakura?”

“Yeah, Sasuke?”

“I thought I heard voices. What’re you two doin’ up?”

She smiled, but her, Obito, and Kakashi all knew Sasuke had been awake for a while. 

“Just thinking, about old history.”

His eyes widened.

“Go back to sleep? I’ll meet you there.”

She mouthed goodnight to Kakashi and sprung off the couch, grabbing a clear glass of water before joining Sasuke. She turned and gave a small wave before entering the hall, and disappeared into the dark. Kakashi thought for a moment, of everything. He stood and wrapped Naruto in the pile of blankets he acquired, carrying him to the bedroom. The room was on the left of the hall, and apparently used to be her parent’s bedroom. The door across the room, on the right, was her parents’ room now, and hers was the far door at the end of the hall. Two more closet doors were on the wall as well, and one “cellar door” closest to the kitchen, a square panel a few feet high touching the floor, which was not explained except to not go in. On the gray, gauzy comforter, Sakura was sprawled out next to Sasuke, and the raised bed was big, so there was more than enough room for Kakashi and Naruto on the foot end. He eased Naruto into the space by Sakura’s feet, and Kakashi laid himself down with Naruto at his head and the door at his heels. Sasuke chuckled, reaching to the nightstand. Sakura smiled at him, and he smiled back, mask still on as Sasuke turned down the lamp. The darkness was soft and heavy, and Kakashi never felt so safe falling asleep. 

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Post date 8/1/19  
> This will be a monthly update schedule until I get a buffer built up. Expect life to throw some curveballs. :).


	3. Writhing Paws: Part 2

“So this is Neko-baa-sama’s home! Be careful of the rug, please.” 

“Oh, got it.” I stepped aside to avoid getting it dirty. 

“Wow!”

There was a small red rug with a foreign weave, the width of three of my feet end to end, at the entrance. The house glowed with orange light cast on the dark wood, with various art and bits of shiny things hanging on the walls. I thought I saw a diamond charm pinned in the wood by a brooch, and a gray bottle cap from Whirlpool country. A small model boat sailed in a glass frame. 

“Hmph,” Sasuke nodded approvingly, curiously looking at the decor. 

The clan cats decided we would all wait up here until the paperwork is submitted - _why with the paperwork?_ \- and depending on something, us genin will go to the central tower or stay here to meet with our sensei. 

On the way here, while talking about it, Itogi asked Obito if Kakashi is still a stuck-up prick. I slapped Obito upside the head when he said yes. 

Apparently Itogi and Obito have a short but vast history due to similar personalities. I was less surprised that Itogi had been the Havana Brown cat crashing people’s homes. 

I wondered if he had been on a different assignment, and when he sensed me in my house, asked Neko-baa to bring me here. 

“Oh, hello dear.” A well-aged woman turned to us, tilting her watering stem upright. The plants by the windowsill were cared for. The light from the window haloed her low bun of gray hair. A cat-ear charm hung on her neck. 

_/I swear to god she doesn’t look any older…/_ Obito considered her look for a moment. / _Maybe she has a few more wrinkles?/_

I chuckled, then tried to hide my expression. 

She was looking right at me. Both of us had the same thought- 

_Abort-!_

“Wow!” Naruto grinned sunnily as he pointed. “You’re old!” 

_/I think Sasuke’s looking to follow his brother’s footsteps./_

_ <Wow, that was _ not _necessary. > _

_/I’m right./_

I bumped Sasuke to shock him out of possibly-murderous thoughts, and Neko-baa smiled. 

“Oh, yes, I’m quite aged.” She shuffled toward us. “Just like the best cheeses and wine.” 

Naruto gave a little snort at that. Sasuke seemed to have calmed down. 

_/Oh! That’s why he said that./_

_ <Huh? What?> _

_/He’s happy a shinobi can live that long./_

I frowned. _Oh…_

“How old are you?” 

Sasuke shoulder-checked him lightly. Naruto pouted at Sasuke’s raised eyebrows. 

“Oh, I don't like to share my age, _but_ I can make an exception.” Neko-baa curled her fingers, and he skipped over. She whispered a number in his ear. I heard seventy, but Obito insisted she’s much older than that, and she would have to be, to have been an old lady when Obito, Kakashi, and Rin met her. 

_ <That means Neko-baa-sama is older than the other Neko-baa.> _

_/Yeah./_

There was idle chat. I spent most of my time looking at the ornaments on the walls and foreign goods. Naruto watched everything cheerily, studiously taking it in. Sasuke seemed incredibly interested in the process of how summoning works, and when he brought up a question about the ninneko specifically, I started paying attention. 

After a long conversation about summoning, then turning to Naruto asking about his family, a summon with a letter arrived in the window, handing it to Neko-baa. 

It apparently asked us to meet at the Central Tower in one of the offices. 

~*~

“Hello.”

“Eheheh.”

“You three put me through a lot of trouble. Ugh.” He frowned at the mud on his shoe. 

Team Kakashi stood in one of the offices on the third floor, where it was arranged for his genin to be brought to him after their _insane_ “adventure” into the literal _home of the most ruthless summon animal clan._ The room had no decoration except one square painting of a green tree in spring or summer. The light bamboo floor was a luxury, permitted for the Hokage’s meeting rooms. This was a much smaller room meant for one or two visitors, but fit his team just fine. The walls were false wood mixed with real planks, knotted spirals in the grain. In a square window, the sun could be seen almost entirely under the horizon. 

A small white brickle cat, female, observed the proceedings from a sunny spot on the floor, tail thumping idly where she sprawled on her side. A prim black cat sat next to her with a tall posture, paws nearly tucked in front of him, bushy tail still and silent. 

The cat clan was one of six to have earned the title, pending a seventh, and each had their own preferences. His genin were lucky this clan liked children, and that Kakashi had earned their favor somewhat, even with his family’s dog summons. 

“Now,” he glared, “what _in heaven_ was that about?” 

_What the hell were you thinking? Damn, Obito, even you had common sense. You were always pulling sh- junk like this with the ninneko in our day, too. Minato chewed you out all the time and you never. Listened._

“First off, it was an accident.” Of course Sakura starts. 

“Second, we went and followed her,” _-Naruto-_ “because your dumb paperwork was taking too long-”

“-I _hadn’t done it yet-”_

“Exactly!” He puffed up, hands on his hips. “-and Sasuke said she might be in danger.” 

Kakashi turned to Sasuke with a slow pressure, raising an eyebrow. Sasuke fidgeted nervously, looking away. 

Sasuke steadied himself and stared Kakashi in the eye. “My mom and dad told me stories that kids that went to explore the ninneko’s caves ended up killed.” 

_God, guys, could you just_ parent _without having to traumatize your child?!_

Kakashi let out heavy breath. He stopped himself from pinching between his eyes. “Sasuke, those were stories your parents told you to stop you from exploring the ninneko’s caves. It’s a hassle and teaches you obedience, not to mention…” _Stay calm, don’t get annoyed. They didn’t get the chance to tell him and no one knew to correct him._ “...the ninneko don’t hurt kids. They love the Uchiha clan especially, and you would have entered a contract with them for a summoning partner, had everything not happened.” 

_Should have kept my mouth shut on the last part._ At least Kakashi could recognize his bad decisions, now. 

Sasuke wilted in on himself. “Oh.” 

Kakashi opened his mouth to speak, but Sakura beat him to it. 

“It’s ok, you didn’t know.” She put an arm on his shoulders. She caught Naruto’s light sweatshirt, too. “But hey, I’d say we had a lot of fun down there, huh?” They snickered at some inside joke, then nervously eyed Kakashi. 

“Well, since you had _so much fun,_ how about I teach you how to fill out the forms so you can visit whenever you want?” 

Permission forms. They all groaned but recognized the allowance, and trudged to the table where he had stacked the forms before their arrival. 

~*~

Sasuke and Naruto walked through a silent tunnel. The walls, a reddish brown, pretended to shrink in on them with the spiraling curves inward; the boys eyed the strange light symbols, some reminding them of pawprints. 

“Hey, hito, do you know where we’re going?” Sasuke shifted away from the wall, clipping Naruto’s heels. His silky black hair brushed his ears as he raised his shoulders. 

“No, I’m following my instincts.” Naruto’s voice was self-assured as he checked the pulling in his chest guiding him, making sure it was still forward. He wasn’t sure how to describe it except for a harness around his chest that tugged him where he was trying to go - when he was focused on one particular location or person. Just thinking somewhere “safe” didn’t help when he was almost kidnapped. 

Cats weaved in and out of the smaller tunnels watching them, but none approached, and they let the boys walk through without hindrance. 

The walls of solid mud were warped, as if they were carved with an endless spiral on purpose. It was smooth, like a river flowed through it, but the pattern was wrong. Naruto didn’t think about how he knew the pattern of a river through soil when he hadn’t been near much water in his life. 

The trip was silent, except for the shifting of things - cats? - in the walls, the occasional echo of a single drop of water, and the nervous words whispered between Naruto and Sasuke. 

The tunnel was pretty uneventful, for the danger, Naruto considered. 

A trilling wail bounced through the tunnel. Sasuke tensed. It got louder. A white brickle cat - white with a few tan and brown spots - barreled towards them in apparent excitement. 

Sasuke didn’t seem to realize and flinched, reaching for his kunai. 

Naruto nudged him, placing a hand over his. 

“Nusu, it’s okay. She’s excited.” 

“She?”

The lithe cat reached them. 

“Hello!” she chirped, swishing her tail quickly. “I’m here to take you both to the central chamber to see Neko-baa!” 

“Hello!” 

“N… hello.” 

She wouldn’t stop bouncing from foot to foot in glee. _That’s adorable._

She turned around. Before they started walking, Naruto tried to catch her attention. 

“Hey, uh…” Her ear swiveled. “What’s your name?”

“Oh!” She met Naruto’s eyes, back lowered. 

She muttered under her breath, _“How embarrassing…”_

“My name’s Shikuroi, it’s a pleasure to meet you! I’m an official messenger for Neko-baa-san!” 

Sasuke smiled, putting his weight on one foot. “It’s nice to meet you!” 

Naruto sprinted ahead to Shikuroi’s side. “Yeah!” 

She startled. 

“Lead the way!”

Shikuroi shook herself and strode forward. 

“Of course!” 

~*~

Sasuke wondered at the brightening corridor. He heard Sakura’s voice. Naruto started running. 

Naruto’s nickname may be “sun”, but hearing Sakura’s voice right then, it felt like Sasuke was the one who was the sun. It burned under his skin as he grinned and ran, slowing down at the tunnel entrance. 

_“I won’t lose you too.”_

_“I know.”_

Sasuke loved them both so much. 

_-_

_“I promise we’ll always be together.”_

_-_

_“Don’t give up…”_

_-_

_“…I love you.”_

No one will ever hurt them, any of them - _his family_ \- again. 

~*~

Kakashi was not ready for the hell Sakura brought as soon as they settled down in his apartment. 

He felt an oncoming dread as soon as she grinned. The boys were flopped on his couches, as was Kakashi. 

Sakura was planning something. 

_No. Please._

“Hey, Kakashi…” 

“Ugh.”

He threw a pillow at her. 

“So…”

The boys stared at her, leaning forward in anticipation. 

“... Neko-baa-sama says she met you.”

They leaned further forward. 

Sakura trilled. “She says you don’t visit her enough anymore~”

_“OOOOHHHHHH!”_

Kakashi winced. _I need to start wearing earplugs._

“And…” Sakura’s wicked grin called the thought of Kurenai to his mind. _“-pillow fight!”_

She whipped the pillow at his face with all her little might, which turned out to be quite a lot. Kakashi stood up. The boys fled the couch. 

“Oh, you wanna fight?”

Two hours later, Kakashi cooked homemade ramen as the kids groaned, pressing ice packs to various wounds. Kakashi had a few wounds of his own, but the strain in his limbs was satisfying. His kids could hold their own pretty well. 

...for a bunch of genin. 

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! Been making sure this one’s filled with foreshadowing. Happy Halloween!  
> Post date 10/24/19  
> \- edit 3/30/20- Hello! I’ve been focusing on school and writing a work to publish. Sorry for the cliffhanger! I’ll let you all know when I resume a normal posting schedule. Don’t worry if you’re invested in this story! I have a lot of chapters planned out, I just need to write them. Later!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> Thanks so much to Elena Parker, whose story, Incarnate of Obito Uchiha, I read and couldn’t forget about.  
> Thank you especially to everyone who has waited for this story!


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